1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to the field of fishing, trapping, and vermin destroying, and in a first manifestation more particularly to duck decoys. In a second alternative manifestation, the invention pertains also to line-guiding vanes shaped or arranged to react with the water upon relative motion thereto to guide or control the line.
2. Description of the Related Art
To the origins of man, there are several essential needs that have been required. Among these is the need for food. This basic need is thought to have originally dictated many of man's activities, and has throughout the ages led to many advances and discoveries. These advances been so successful that, in the more advanced nations of the modern world, man is no longer restricted by this basic need, and food is generally plentiful.
Even though food is now available commercially, and the world has become much more complex, there remains in many individuals a desire to fulfill some of the more basic needs. This has led to the development and refinement of various sports, among which are hunting and fishing. While food may be plentiful, there is still much satisfaction to be gained in the sport. In some cases this may simply be a return to one's roots, or a refreshing visit to what times of old involved. In other cases, the combination of time in the relatively unspoiled outdoors and the opportunity to meet one's basic needs combine to provide great satisfaction. In yet other cases, the time away from hectic life in the city and opportunity to socialize in a more private environment provides an excellent change of pace. Regardless of the specific reasons, millions of individuals at least on occasion continue to participate in the sports of hunting and fishing.
In order to get the greatest satisfaction from the sport, and knowing that many people have relatively limited time and opportunity for recreation, an individual will preferably not spend all of their time in pursuit, and will instead have the opportunity to experience the joy and satisfaction of successfully collecting some of the wildlife that they are pursuing. To this end, there have been many developments that are aimed at assisting the hunter or fisherman, and where these developments have proven to be successful, the developments have been quite well received.
Among these, in the field of duck and goose hunting, man has observed over time that ducks and geese are much more likely to land on a body of water which is already occupied by other ducks and geese. Since ducks and geese are able to fly hundreds of miles during the course of a day, they may choose from what may include thousands of bodies of water. Consequently, without any assistance, a hunter who must set up on only a single body of water may all too often find that the ducks and geese pass him by without coming within range.
To encourage the ducks and geese to land on a particular body of water, man has developed a number of different decoys. These decoys, which are designed to attract or lure the ducks and geese, are most frequently designed to be buoyant upon a body of water, to visually resemble the desired ducks and geese, and to be anchored so that they do not undesirably get carried with currents of water and wind away from the location that is chosen by the hunter.
The basic decoy has proven to be so beneficial to the luring of wildlife that there is hardly a goose or duck hunter that will prefer to hunt without decoys. Nevertheless, as hunters have become more sophisticated, there has been thought that these basic decoys may be further improved upon. For exemplary purposes, the quality of the decoy appearance has been improved. Since ducks and geese have excellent eye sight, they may be very far from the decoys to detect the fact that the decoys are not real, if the appearance is not of high quality. More recently, some have recognized that, even with high quality appearance, if the decoy is not moving then ducks and geese may circle at a distance and in the end move on to other waters. As a result, a relatively recent improvement in the industry has been the incorporation of moving parts that cause the decoy to appear animated.
Exemplary of this concept is U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,413,418 by Rulison, entitled “Mechanical decoy”, the teachings which are incorporated herein by reference, which describes a duck decoy with manually activated wing motion controlled remotely by a cord going to a device mounted between the decoy and its anchor. 2,799,960 by Riley, entitled “Animated decoy,” the teachings which are also incorporated herein by reference, describes a duck decoy having a wind-up device embedded therein to provide motion to the decoy. 5,074,071 by Dunne, entitled “Decoy holder assembly decoy,” the teachings which are incorporated herein by reference, describes a device installed between the decoy and the anchor to coordinate the spacing of and prevent entanglement between multiple decoys. 6,463,690 by Wood et al, entitled “Steam jet propelled waterfowl decoy,” the teachings which are incorporated herein by reference, describes a decoy that is powered by fuel to move. Finally, 6,601,333 by Cicoff et al, entitled “Remote controlled game decoy and game retriever decoy,” the teachings which are also incorporated herein by reference, describes a decoy that is remotely controlled to direct its movement and actions using onboard powered devices.
As may be appreciated, while these animated decoys may substantially improve the realism from a distance, the cost is also substantially greater. In addition to being substantially more expensive than a simple floating decoy, these decoys are much more prone to failure than the simple float. While it may be economical to add one or two of these decoys, a hunter will frequently employ many more decoys than can be animated. Unfortunately, the majority of decoys then remain relatively motionless. In the prior art, there has not been an affordable solution which will permit a hunter to animate all decoys, and yet maintain the relatively random movements that are necessary to accurately resemble a large number of ducks or geese upon a water body.
Animation is beneficial not only in the art of decoys, but also in the fishing industry. While these are two distinct industries, as will be explained herein below the teachings of the present invention may be applied in some instances to the fishing industry as well. In the fishing industry, there has been much animation incorporated into the lures. Exemplary of this broader concept of imparting zigzag motion to an aquatic device is disclosed, for exemplary purposes, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,184 by Studanski, entitled “Zigzag aquatic device and method,” the teachings which are incorporated herein by reference. This patent describes a device with selectable connection points for the line to the fishing rod, and for weights and hooks or other lures. It has a bistable guidance vane that alternates in position to cause the lure to track in a zigzag pattern. Nevertheless, the Studanski device operates above the surface, and does not disclose or teach the use with a duck decoy. Additional patents illustrate the use of a device to impart oscillatory motion or guiding forces to fishing lures and baits. Exemplary of these devices are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,153,298 by Lemon; 4,201,006 by Wetherald; 2,637,134 by Davidson; 3,656,253 by Gaunt; 2,726,475 by Wiselka; and 5,165,196 and 5,355,615 by Spickelmire, the teachings of each which are incorporated herein by reference.